After backing budget framework, ActionSA weighing decision to join GNU

CAPE TOWN - With the Democratic Alliance (DA) having put itself out in the cold after refusing to back its coalition partners in approving the budget framework on Wednesday, the attention shifts to whether ActionSA now has a foot in the door to join the governing inner circle.
 
ActionSA gave the coalition its six votes to get the budget blueprint over the line, on the condition that the VAT hike is retracted within 30 days - it signals there could be more in the offing for a future working relationship with the African National Congress (ANC), despite its vehement rejection of joining forces in the past.

The party is expected to make announcements about its next steps at a briefing at Parliament on Thursday morning. 
 
On Wednesday night, ActionSA's parliamentary leader, Athol Trollip, said that he had confidence in the ANC to stick to its word to find alternatives to the impending VAT hike to fund the revenue shortfall.
 
"This ANC government is going to have to understand that they are going to have to change their bad habits. Every year there are expenditure reviews tabled in Parliament that just get ignored, just like the Zondo Commission. We are going to put pressure on them to change the expenditure patterns and their behaviour."

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Trollip described his former political home, the DA, as the greatest protagonist in getting the budget framework over the line.
 
"So, as we are all bickering here about parochial interests, and about more control in the GNU, we see the value of the rand and our economy tubing. We, as ActionSA, say we need to do something pragmatic and we did it, something unexpected, something new, but this whole situation is new." 

STRATEGIC DECISION

Trollip said that a decision on whether or not his party would join the GNU if invited would be decided strategically.
 
He said that when the GNU was formed nine months ago, ActionSA felt it could play a more meaningful role as the fulcrum in the middle between the GNU and the so-called progressive opposition.
 
But with the DA's position as the second-largest party in the GNU now in flux, ActionSA is reconsidering its next steps, which it will announce at Parliament on Thursday morning.
 
ActionSA was one of two parties outside of the GNU, along with Build One South Africa (BOSA) to back the fiscal framework.
 
"If the DA leaves the GNU, whether they get kicked out or they decide to leave, the opposition space is going to get crowded, and we will have to take a strategic decision. Will we still make an impact in opposition or must we look at perhaps going into government? But that depends on the GNU, whether they want us in there or not. We will wait and see, but we will make a strategic decision where we can make the greatest impact."
 
After the DA and the Freedom Front Plus on Wednesday refused to support a budget that included a VAT hike, ActionSA said it was clear that the GNU was not working optimally. 
 
"The GNU must sort out their stuff. The fact that we’re standing here today is because the GNU could not sort out their stuff. They have been in this government for nine months, they couldn't thread the needle to get this budget passed, now they need external support. So, they must decide whether they can govern as a GNU, or whether they can govern as a new coalition government, and there's a big difference."

Meanwhile, the DA said it would decide on its future in the GNU by the end of the week, as it plans to mount a legal challenge on Wednesday morning against the budgetary process and the VAT hike of 0.5 percentage points that will come into effect in May.